Congressman Mike Ross (D-Arkansas) Urges USPS to Explore Other Cost-Cutting Alternatives
Legislative Update: Saving Our Local Post Offices
January 9, 2012
Washington -Last year, the United States Postal Service dramatically increased its attempts to close post offices around the country in order to help save the agency money, primarily those in rural areas. In fact, almost 200 postal facilities could possibly close here in Arkansas. As I believe the Postal Service should consider other cost-cutting alternatives, I strongly oppose the closure of these post offices as it would disproportionately hurt people in rural areas and those on fixed incomes.
The U.S. Postal Service is a self-supporting government agency whose revenue comes from the sales of its products and services – not from taxpayers. Recently, the agency said it is losing more than $23 million a day as a result of the economic slowdown and an increase in electronic media, such as e-mail. However, I believe the Postal Service’s troubles are much more than the economy and the Internet. The financial problems plaguing the U.S. Postal Service are due to failed management, inadequate planning and poor business practices – problems that closing a few post offices simply won’t fix.
I am also skeptical of the overall closing process, because it appears the Postal Service places little emphasis on the reaction and concerns raised by people in the affected communities. That’s why I have sent numerous letters to the Postal Service requesting a top-to-bottom review of the entire closing process and opposing the closing of post offices altogether.
I also recently joined an effort to get more than 75 Members of Congress to sign a letter to the Postal Regulatory Commission to stop the closing process and work with Congress to help find a long-term solution that protects customers and ensures the longevity of the postal system. The letter argued “widespread post office closures is the wrong way to deal with the Postal Service’s fiscal problems and could harm the Postal Service’s competitiveness in the long run.”
Finally, on Dec. 13, the U.S. Postal Service announced it would delay the closing or consolidation of any post office or mail processing facility until May 15, 2012, after receiving multiple requests by Members of Congress to halt the process. As someone who has fought hard against the closing of our post offices, I am pleased the Postal Service finally listened to the American people and their representatives in Congress. The temporary delay will allow Congress and the Postal Service to work together and explore other possible solutions.
For instance, I have helped introduce a bill, H.R. 1351, to eliminate a requirement that the Postal Service pre-pay future retiree medical benefits, which is not required of any other federal agency. This commonsense bill would save the Postal Service so much money that repealing this one requirement would give the agency a profit over the last four years.
I fought hard to stop the closing of post offices so that we can work together to find commonsense, longer-term solutions that do not disproportionately hurt people in rural areas who depend on their post office or those on fixed incomes that can’t afford the gas to drive longer distances. As your Congressman, I will keep listening to you and fighting for you in our nation’s capital and I will continue to monitor this issue very closely.
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A fifth generation Arkansan, Congressman Mike Ross of Prescott represents the Fourth Congressional District of Arkansas in the U.S. House of Representatives. Ross serves on the House Energy & Commerce Committee and serves as the ranking member of the U.S. Delegation to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, an association of lawmakers from each of the NATO-member countries. Ross is also Co-Chair of the Congressional Sportsmen’s Caucus, Co-Chair of the Second Amendment Task Force and Co-Chair of the Blue Dog Coalition, a group of fiscally conservative Democratic House members that advocates the principles of fiscal responsibility and government accountability.
You want to see intentional mismanagement take a look at Springfied MA. Celletti & Hoppock want to send mail sent in the spfld area to hartford to be sorted than have it sent bak up to be delieved… The Amp study is a oke and there is no need to close the spfld P&dc operation. They disregard the contract and harrass employees in an attempt to fire anyone for anything. You say anything they pul out the zero tolerance BS yet managent yells swear harrasses hard working employees all over the building. it a sad joke these moron ar running the place and letting Bud Barrett and all these SDO run the place into the ground
And you really want to see mismanagement, take a look at the Greater Indiana District.
Well, at least SOMEBODY in Washington can do their freaking homework! It’s about time SOMEBODY noticed!
Right on!!!!!!
Sorry, Less. You couldn’t be more wrong. I am an automation clerk and I actually work the mail you are describing. Stopping Saturday delivery will not save one dime because:
1) Closed business mail is less than 5% of Saturday mail. I know that for a fact because this mail sorts to special bins for non delivery. The average for a 60,000 piece run is less than 3 trays or about 2100 pieces of mail.
2) Ad mail is not 99% of Saturday mail, that is just an absurd number you made up, Saturday is a very heavy day for first class.
3) Friday night to Saturday is the second busiest processing day next to Sunday night for Monday.
4) Mail processing machines only run so much mail per hour and that mail has to be finished, and dispatched in time for transportation. Adding Saturday mail to Monday mail is a logistical impossibility. For example: If you run and dispatch 130,000 pieces of mail on Satuday and your Monday volume is 140,000 there is not enough room on the racks, the trays, or run time to process that much mail.
5) Hypothetically you could still process mail Friday night and stage it for distribution with Monday mail but that means more trucks and more runs and more carrier time combining two runs for street delivery. And that is not the PMGs plan as I understand it. He wants to shut down on the weekends and give everyone the weekend off.
Unfortunately, the debate on Saturday delivery was started by the PMG to eliminate carrier jobs. He has completely ignored the fact that making every weekend have the combined volume of four days cannot work. You will lose all gains to overtime for mailhandlers, clerks, and carriers to work all that mail for a single delivery day,
Lastly, the debate on the USPS has produced a lot of opinions from people who simply have no clue how we do what we do. For most people the Post Office is a black box: mail comes in and mail goes out and few people really know how. While this may work for security reasons, it has produced very vocal and very uninformed opinions.
The Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2006 was passed in the lame duck session of the 109th Congress then under Republican control. it wasn’t “Harry and Nancy” as Morgan703 thinks. It was Bush and the Republicans you can thank for the poison pill ( aka prefunding retiree health benefits) that’s killing the Postal Service.
Manage ent should use common cents and eliminate a total wasted cost which is
Sat. street delivery. Mail delivery on Sat. does not provide benefits to the American public. 99.++PERCENT of mail delivered on Sat. is advertising sales papers and plays no part to connecting individual and businesses. Net results zero connector at a costly price. Closing plants and slowing delivery is an act that hinders individuals and business in conducting transactions. Eliminating Sat. street delivery does not hinder individuals and businesses in connecting as majority of businesses do not pickup mail from PO boxes and are closed on Sat. and do not receive street delivery. THE SPEED of mail Mon.–Fri. is a critical issue.
Eliminating Sat. street delivery 53 days a year would result in a massive reduction in petroleumn and manhour cost..
There are small officies that have no need to exist as time has chainged demographics. These are not small towns which have 1 Post Office and are 25 miles from another PO office. The justification in closing community post offices are; many are 5-6 miles from each other and large 20,21,22 level officies in county seat within 3-10 miles from small community Post Officies and in many cases the large offices provides delivery to the areas surrounding these officies which operate to provide retail and PO Box service. Totally inefficient costly unnecessary service. Politicans in general only care to get elected regardless of the cost and waste and speak loud as to oppose closing of needless small post officies.
They’ll offer a buy out but not pay you your retirement. Like the Viet Nam Vet that is still waiting 6 months to get his first FULL retirement check and only got a partial 1/2 payment after 4 months. Duh! Click OK and hit enter OPM!
They are non productive, they just hang in there for kiss ass,engage in scam system, abusing, harrasing, hidden rules……
Everything I read says the usps is broke and have reached their borrowing limit. If they can’t borrow and have no money, then how can they keep their doors open if they’re still losing 23 million a day like this article states? Last year they said they weren’t going to pay into the employees retirement because it was overfunded. Then they were told that legally, they should pay…so they made a bulk payment and made good. Just another example where they say they’re broke but are then able to come up with the cash. This is a fake crisis designed to push privatization and get concessions from the employees. More than one of the postal unions is currently in contract negotiations so the timeliness of this crisis should raise a flag . My bet is that all this propaganda is going to really hurt those negotiations….more union busting.
Hey Ponder, what Ross/Issa lie are you refering to? You just explained the problem in a nutshell, however there is no way you can say the HR 2309 bill is gonna fix anything. Its going leave the prefunding where it is so they can raid it like they raid social security. Its also going to reduce service to worst than what it is now by hiring lower paid people, ones that have nothing invested in the success of the po, ones that wouldn’t care if you got your mail or not, and will leave for better jobs when the economy recovers. So again, what lie?
Typical response of the almighty politician who”s approval rating is 5%. Remember, at election time remove all incumbents…….”Flush the turds”
Come On Man! Who needs these Mismanagers? The Computer does it all! They should just be called “Data Entry Clerks” ! Fill out a Log here, a Log There, enter the mail volume, walk around with a Tie on and just look like you deserve the Job. They are the ones that should be scaning the Bar Code on their ASS!
A Tale Of Two Rosses?
As I started reading this article turbulence built up unbearably in the brain cage rattling my eyeballs until it was apparent THIS Ross feller was a different Ross than that ninny hailing from the land of oranges and swamps (you know… Issa’s bestest buddy and playmate).
Who woulda thot? There are two… count ’em… 2! Ross Congressmen in the House?
Whatta relief!
Sorry Happy Mindless Tail.
I want them in EVERY town and city. You know without them, like my local PO, my community will die.
Muriel Ponder the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act passed under Bush??
News flash moron, it was Nancy and Harry who were the leaders that wrote and passed that piece of accounting smoke and mirrors.
“I like horses so can we also bring back the public hitching posts and watering troughs?”
Its your luckly day partner, Bring your Trigger to horse town Norco Calif. USA.
I get a kick out of reading these mindless comments. After reading them one might think that mail volume is rising and not falling. When the fact is that everyone on here made a good wage and bought their teenager a smart phone and now they are texting, emailing, checking their balances and paying bills online. I like horses so can we also bring back the public hitching posts and watering troughs?
Just offer another large buyout and Vera with benefits and alot of employees will retire with dignity and respect Visit the elderly establishments because some of them don’t use the internet and love to write and mail letters Senior citizens should not be left out of the equation Be proactive not reactive in the decisions of the USPS Keep it moving !!!!!!
While the Post Office has its share of poor managers, it is not mismanagement causing the financial woes of the Service! It is the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act passed under Bush ll! it imposes the demand the Service PREFUND RETIREE HEALTHCARE BENEFITS FOR 75 YEARS INTO THE FUTURE IN A 10 YEAR PERIOD! No other business in the world has that kind of burden! While the Postal Service does have a new Postmaster General, most of its management team was in place prior to the passage of this bill and the service was operating in the black in spite of a drop in mail volume. All you Postal employees who are busy swallowing the poison pill and parroting the Ross/Issa lies, go find a better job and stop stabbing your coworkers in the back! There are millions out of work who would like to take your place. All you Americans who enjoy getting mail every day, write your congress person, let them know you don’t want privatized, for profit mail service. It will follow the path of for profit public transportation and health care, an upward spiral benefitting only a few.
No what’s really wrong with the house is when a bill with 2 co sponsers is the only bill that’s pushed thru the house (the infamous D. Ross/D. Issa bill HR 2309) I propose they fix that so it requires a majority to pass the house so more smarter and logical heads like this M. Ross can prevent such idiotic things from happening and the people will be pleased. If anyone from florida or california is reading this you can help by voting D. Ross and D. Issa out of office. Long live HR 1351! The only bill that will make america happy!
HAVING’A JOB OFFER, CAN THE CHANGES GOING ON, EFFECT IT IN ANYWAY. WHEN, IT IS A, MEDICAL CHRONIC CONDITION. 30 YEARS OF SERVICE.
MISMANAGEMENT? SURELY YOU JEST!! GIVING DISCOUNTS FOR WALK SEQUENCE THEN PAYING OVERTIME TO TAKE IT OUT OF SEQUENCE AND OVERTIME TO THEN PUT IT BACK IN WALK SEQUENCE IS A SOUND BUSINESS PRACTICE. WORSHIPING STANDARD MAIL WHILE RAISING RATES ON FIRST CLASS AND PRIORITY AND EXPRESS IS A SOUND BUSINESS PRACTICE. LETTING EMPLOYEES STAND AROUND DOING NOTHING IS A SOUND BUSINESS PRACTICE. COUNTING THE MAIL OVER AND OVER AGAIN IS A SOUND BUSINESS PRACTICE. LETTING NIXIE MAIL SIT IDLE FOR DAYS IS A SOUND BUSINESS PRACTICE. THE LIST GOES ON AND ON.
If the best, PMG Donoughe can do with the worlds largest distribution network is diminish service then he needs to be replaced before he does anymore harm.
Yep….Rep. Ross is on the Second Amendment Task Force, member of the NATO Paramilitary Assembly, and a member of the Blue Dog Coalition….
These are outstanding credentials….for something….I don’t know what for sure….
But I do know that he is another one of those mindless BOOBS that are destroying the USPS by their INACTION AND SLOTH in the Congress.
These “CONGRESSMEN” for the most part are absolutely useless.
They stand around doing nothing.
And the SHAME of it all is that we are going to get nothing out of the House
except the ISSA/ROSS Postal Destruction Bill.
postal service is grossly mismanaged, it has 35 percent over staffing of managers, the higher up the ladder the less accountability , and productivity there is. congress should fire everyone at postal headquarters in washington, should be ptf, casual, and te management that only works four hour days.